Wichita eagle., 1887-06-12
WOMAN AND HOME.
MOTHERS TRAINING THROUGH THE
DISCIPLINE OF DOLLS.


Mrs. Jenness Mfller's Lecture-An Eco.
nomical Bonnet - Hanging Pictures.
The Old Fashioned sampler-Pairted
Lace-Items Of Interest.
It is very instructive fact that two Of the
best mothers I know-and mothers, it must be
added. on the largest scale-have had their
preliminary training solely through the
charge Of dolls. visited lately the nursery
of one of these mothers, arranged as the col
lective play room OF six children under 10;
there being also three older offspring who
have graduated from this play room, and are
in a manner launched into the world outside.
In this room every thing is provided by whole
sale: whole freight trains Of toy wagons,
wooden horses enough for all to ride at once,
and 400 blocks for purposes OF architecture.
Here the six play perpetually together while
they are in doors.
This pattern mother, conducting without
nurse this large world Of little beings, tells
me that she grew up not only without
younger brothers and sisters, but without
knowledge of young children. Up to the
time Of her marriage, at %, she has no recol-
lection of ever having taken any care OF a
child. What, then, prepared her for this
vast sphere of duty. this rearing of nine
young immortalsa It was, she assures me,
the discipline of dolls.
Up to the age Of Is her experience with
dolls was on the very largest scale. She had
seldom less than twenty, each with its own
wardrobe, ornaments and possessions. Every
night Of her life the twenty dolls were un-
dressed and put to bed before their mistress
went, and all their clothes were
neatly folded and put away separately:
During the day, doubtless, each doll
had its own career and position; was fed at
table, fitted with new clothes, elevated into
grandeur or repressed into humbleness. When
their young mistress grew up, they were
doubtless laid aside or transferred to other
children, or banished to the dusty purgatory
of the garnet from which no doll is ever trans
lated to paradise. I forget whether Hans
Andersen has ever duly chronicled the tras
gedy that lies at the end Of every dolls life;
it is worse than that Of any other pet. An
old horse is often rendered, an aged dog is at
least shot, but an old doll is left to lie forever
on its back in the garnet, gazing with ono re-
manning eye on the slowly gathering cobwebs
above it. At any rate, the lady describe
was, after an interval Of ten years, reas-
signed to the duty that had absorbed her in
girlhood; only this time the dolls were alive.
On the other hand, there were fewer of
then-only nine-and they were, and are,
even more interesting, as can testify, than
the dolls. Her experience reminded me Of
that of another mother whose eight children
are now practically grown up, and whose
early training was much the same. She, too,
had little to dlswith children in her youth,
but her only sister once said to me, 81 always
knew that - would be a good mother.
When we had paper dolls, she always knew
just where each one was and what clothes it
needed. She manages her children just as
she did her paper dolls"
How curious is this world of dolls! Uncouth
and savage in Alaska, quaint in Japan, strong
and solidly built in Germany, graceful in
Paris. You can tell German dolls from
French, 1t is said, by the greater clumsiness
of the extremities; no matter how pretty the
face, the feet and ankles are those of a peasant.
In both countries, believe, artifcers visit
the rural villages to study new faces for their
dolls, as in ancient Greece the sculptors trav-
eled about the country looking for beautiful
forms. Everywhere the doll is to the child the
symbol of humanity, the first object of res
possibility, the type of what is lovable, the
model on which the dawning parental instinct
practices ITSELF The little girl does not know
the faults and virtues of her own tempera-
ment until this imaginary being brings them
now flung vehemently into an undeserved
corner. 1t is all imaginary, no doubt, but
much of our sensibility lies in the imagina-
picture to ourselves. Children will some
times cry when the doll is pricked in
sewing ON a dress, or is forgotten when she
should be placed at the window to see the
procession go by. The sorrow is fantastic,
but the thoughtful sympathy is real. Who
ever listens in the nursery will hear all the
! problems of ethics rehearsed upon this mimic
stage of the dolls house. In the travelling
diary of child Of 8, written &terally from
her own dictation for her absent father, the
important events Of the pilgrimage were
always shared by the doll. "When we got to
Nice / was sick. The next morning the doctor
came, and he said had something that was
very much like scarlet fever. Then had
| Annie IA sister, take care Of baby the dolD
| and keep Der away, for was afraid she would
get the fever. She used to cry to come to me,
but knew it wouldn't be good for her."
To child thus imaginative and thus faith
| full this was an absolute rehearsal of mother
| hood. When Christmas came, it appears
from the diary that "baby" hung up her
stocking with the rest. She had slate with
| a real pencil, a travelling shawl with strap
and cap with ruffles. II found baby with
| the cap on early in the morning, and she was
80 pleased that she almost jumped out of my
arms" At the Coliseum, et ST. Peters. baby
was of the party. 81 used to take her to hear
the band, in the carriage, and she went
everywhere l did," This tenderest of parents
was, Of course, a girl; yet boys take their
share of it in more robust and intermittent
wav, and will take the doll to bed or to
breakfast, sometimes, as eagerly as girls. The
love of dolls with both sexes is a variable
thing, perhaps delayed unaccountably OF
interrupted by long intervals OF indiffer'
ence At any rate. it is the rehearsing OF
the most momentous part of human life, that
which carries on from one generation to an.
other the sacred fire of human affection.
Where the doll ends the child begins, or, a.
an author has said: Gin q nursery the
Youngest child is little more than a doll, and
the doll is a little less than child. IT. w
H" in Harper's Bazar.
bfrs. Jenness Miller's Lecture.
The audience in Steinway hail was slim
when Mrs. Jenness Miller entered upon Tho
platform yesterday afternoon to talk OF The
49,, 3r,ec ~ .ba f,,tr1re IF Mrs Miller wOrt